Posts Tagged ‘emergency landing’

I’m Benet Wilson, the newest member of the Reporting Points team, and I’m delighted to be a part of this great group of writers. On my personal blog, AviationQueen.com, I do a feature post every Friday called “Strange But True Aviation News.” It’s a weekly roundup of all the strange, crazy, unique and interesting things people do on airplanes and in airports. And now, I’ll be doing the GA version of the post right here. So let’s go!

That was one hell of a checkride! Brian Garrett of Westminster, Colo., had a checkride he’ll never forget. According to AOPAOnline, magazine, he passed his checkride after one of the blades on his Sting Sport LSA separated during his flight, forcing him to land in a field.

I guess he didn’t really need that tire. Duane Reetz, 57, of Clintonville Wis., managed to land his plane at Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport despite losing a tire during take-off, reports KLEW-TV. ATC told Reetz that he lost a tire, but he flew for two hours to burn off fuel before doing a nose dive into the runway. He was unharmed.

They were probably happy to see those teens! Four teens are being heralded as heroes after they rescued two victims of a seaplane crash on Lake Whatcom, Wash., reports KING-TV. The accident happened while the pilot was practicing landings.

You do need to deploy the landing gear. Jim Postma, a candidate for the 9th congressional district in Washington state, totaled his plane when he landed at Spanaway Airport without putting down his landing gear, reports KING-TV. When he was returning from a trip with his wife to the San Juan Islands, he turned around after his first attempt to land, then had his accident on the second attempt to land.

It’s a highway – it’s a runway! A small plane was forced to land on I-5 near Bellingham, Wash., after experiencing engine trouble, reports KING-TV. The plane did hit a car, but no one was hurt in the accident.

He’s a flying crane – he’s the president of Russia! Russian President Vladimir Putin hopped into a motorized glider to help endangered cranes fly their migration patterns to Iran and India, reports the Guardian. It took two tries to get the cranes to follow Putin in the glider.

The Los Angeles Times is showing this video of a Cessna 310 that made an emergency landing at Van Nuys Airport on the north side of Los Angeles in late November with a failed nose gear. The pilot minimized the damage to his airplane by keeping the nose off the runway as long as possible.